As noted above, Bangladesh has experienced an extremely rapid growth in urban population in the recent decades. Unfortunately, there is no attempt to assist these migrants, particularly the poor in their process of settling in the city. The issues, such as, the migrants adjustment and adaptation process; the economic, social and psychological impact of rural to urban migration, are all areas of research which demands, in-depth analysis in the context of Bangladesh. It is obvious that economic factors have played a dominant role in the migration process, and at the same time, non-economic factors have also contributed significantly to this decision. There is a big gap in terms of opportunities between rural and urban areas in Bangladesh and it is difficult to expect a significant reduction in the density of migration in the near future (Nazem and Islam, 1996).
Due to the nature of age and educational selectivity of migrants, it is true that rural areas suffer loss from large-scale out migration, and this amounts to the creation of further social inequalities between the rural and urban areas. As the migrants improve their
employment status in the city (although mostly outside the formal sector) they also try to manage their own shelter provisions. Chaudhury (1983) points out that the migrants have a variety of shelter arrangements on their arrival in the city (see figure Appendix P Figure. 1, Figure. 2, Figure. 3). About 13% of the migrants stay with relatives mostly free, as much as 30% find accommodation in “mess” (dormitory for single persons) type of houses, 17% rent a house, 18% are provided with accommodation at the place of work and the rest have other arrangements.
Access to land and housing is crucial for the survival of the migrants in the cities in Bangladesh. In addition, because of the extreme scarcity of available land, high demand form all income groups and consequent high price, as well as the planning policy and practice, the migrants are extremely marginalized in terms of their access to land.
Moreover, overall urban residential density and housing occupancy ratio have assumed to be very critical, particularly for the new migrants (Nazem and Islam, 1996).
The highly limited access to land for housing has persisted since the early 50s and has worsened with time. Lack of planning, together with social and environmental problems make it more unbearable for the low and middle-income groups. As a result, only a very small proportion of better-off people can afford fairly comfortable luxury housing, while the vast majority of the low income group and the poor are faced with the problem of living in substandard housing (Eusuf & Khatun, 1993).
The overall urban residential density, occupancy ratio and physical conditions of houses are all questionable. Residential densities have increased even in upper income and middle-income areas by the process of filtering and densification. In low-income areas or slums, the densities are higher, more than 2000 persons per acre, while the Third World
average is about 300 persons per acre. The occupancy rate or the average number of occupants per housing unit in urban areas increased from 5.84 in 1961, to 6.05 in 1974 to over 7.07 in 1981. During the 1961-74 period, urban population of the country increased by 138 % while the number of residential units increased by 129 %, which creates a gap between housing demand and supply. According to one projection some 7.5 million units of housings would be required in 1990-2010 period, which amounts to 175,000 houses a year to adjust the housing deficiency (CUS, 1992).
According to the report of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (1994), the average floor area for living in urban areas is about 30 Sqm/person whereas it is found to be approximately 5sqm/person in the bustee areas. The conditions in slums or squatters are even worse and the average floor area falls to just about 1-1.4 Sqm/person in Dhaka (CUS, 1990). Only some exceptions found in some formal public sector subdivision schemes for low-income population, i.e. resettlement camps or refuge camps where larger plots with low densities can be seen.
The complex problems resulting from the steady growth of squatter settlements in the city cannot be solved unless an adequate amount of land is made available for housing the poor. The public housing delivery system falls far short of the growing housing demand in the country (where only 7% of the total housing stock is provided by the public authorities). The consequences of the country’s traditional policy of providing heavily subsidized housing to the privileged few creates an acute shortage of housing in the urban centres. Moreover, many of the public housing units meant for low-income people are sold or leased to middle income households.
It may be concluded that, despite the inability of the public authorities to meet the various demands of slum and squatter dwellers, the tenure security of these people may help to improve the conditions of housing by self-help initiatives. Temporary tenure form of public housing has proved substantial improvements in the resettlements camps. So it is, therefore, strongly recommended that any genuine attempt to improve the housing condition of the lower income (both slum and squatter dwellers) must be oriented towards increasing the supply of land and tenure security for them (Hossain, 1999).
3.1.3. Housing Policies for Low-Income Settlements and Urban Residential Pattern